India or bust

>> Local filmmaker Hunt Hoe takes on the immigrant perspective in Seducing Maarya

by MATTHEW HAYS

When I first spoke with Montreal filmmaker Hunt Hoe eight months ago, we discussed his ambitious trilogy Foreign Ghosts, which had just been released. It was then that he revealed to me his plans for his next project.

"I want to make a film about the Indian immigrant experience," he said. I balked. After all, there's been much criticism of artists attempting to take on the perspective of other racial and ethnic groups for the sake of a story--particularly in the cinema. "I want to write about my friends and about what I know," he told me at the time.

And here Hoe is, on the set of Seducing Maarya, his second feature--all about the rather dysfunctional goings-on of a family who's immigrated to Canada. While the budget is slim ($300,000), Hoe stresses that he's going to be raising funds as the shoot progresses. And Hoe has managed to lure two major stars from India, a country that hosts the largest film community in the world.

Mohan Agashe plays Seducing Maarya's patriarch, a man who moved to Canada years ago and must now grapple with the thought that his son may want to move back to the homeland. Agashe is a veteran of the Indian stage and screen, having worked with directors like Mira Nair, Shyam Benegal and Satyajit Ray. Agashe's profile is so high in India's film community that in 1997 he was asked to become the director of the Film and Television Institute of India. But what's most striking about Agashe's résumé is his other career: he is also a renowned psychiatrist, lobbying the government for new mental health programs in his native country.

Also starring in the film is Nandana Dev Sen, a Harvard graduate who appeared in Guidia, a hit at the Cannes, London and Montreal World Film festivals (the film won the National Award for Best Hindi film of 1997). Canadian actors Vijay Mehta, Cas Anvar and Ryan Hollyman round out the film's cast.

Agashe and Sen see nothing strange about Hoe, a Canadian of Chinese descent, writing and directing a movie about the Indian experience. "North America is full of many different ethnic groups," says Agashe. "The value systems are dramatically altered from first generation to second generation, and so on. Tradition versus passion: this is the essential theme of the movie. This is not a documentary about cultural details. It's targeted at an international audience. These characters are very complex, not black and white--people audiences will be able to relate to."

Hoe made his Indian connections while premiering Foreign Ghosts at an Indian film festival. Despite the low budget, Sen said she was drawn to Hoe's vision and the strength of his script.

Taking a break from shooting one of the movie's most emotional scenes, Agashe and Sen ponder the lack of interest in Indian films among Western audiences. "Anything that's not English has trouble in North America," says Agashe. "If you go to Paris, there are films from all over the world in cinemas there. Not in America. But there are a lot of younger filmmakers who are pleasing regional audiences and, ultimately, international audiences--Shekhar Kapur and Mira Nair among them."

"I actually think if Indian films were marketed properly they would catch on," says Sen. "You have to cultivate an audience and markets for that kind of product."

"Indian films are often too long," says Agashe, "and have lots and lots of love songs."

While both have experience working in North America--Sen studied in the producer's program at the University of Southern California while Agashe acted in Mississippi Masala--they say there aren't that many differences between working here and in India.

"There's very little difference in making a low-budget film like this one and one in India," says Agashe, who has high praise for the commitment and professionalism of the cast and crew of Hoe's latest. "There's a strong family feeling, a feeling of people working very hard together towards a common goal."